Chapter 107 In Cheollihyang Village - 5
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"I definitely saw you die. What happened?"
His appearance, as if he had returned from the flames, gave me a rough idea of what had happened to him, but I was quite curious about how he was fine even after his skull was shattered.
Did he sell his soul to a necromancer?
It seemed certain that he had been turned into an undead.
No, seeing the pierced hole slowly mending, it didn't seem like a simple case of becoming undead.
'Tsk.'
This was going to be quite tricky.
And what's more, he had Renia as a hostage.
'I was wondering why the Go! Succubus! skill wasn't working, and as expected, it was blocked by a mana control device.'
Renia, who had smiled brightly upon seeing me, immediately looked on the verge of tears.
Seeing Renia's true form after so long, a sense of familiarity that didn't fit the tense situation welled up inside me.
Right, our Renia was the queen of succubi.
Choi Do-han tilted his head with a vicious sneer.
"Kekeke, right. I died by your hand. My head was cut off."
"You know I had no choice back then. You were insane. Was I supposed to just stand by and watch when I was about to die if I couldn't stop you?"
"Well, it doesn't matter. What's important is now."
"What do you want from me?"
"Can't you tell by looking? Your life, of course."
"A line that fits a villain perfectly. Well, you were always better suited for that side."
At my playful remark, the man relaxed his posture and stood comfortably.
I had no regrets about confronting him and changing the original story.
It was something that was bound to happen, a fateful story that couldn't be avoided.
However, if I could go back to that time, I might be able to treat him a little more kindly.
It wasn't a pleasant thing to face the man who had been broken because of me.
Of course, it was just the result of our respective choices.
"Kekeke. You son of a bitch. Not only did you hide your identity, but you also deceived me?"
"Deceived? I don't think that's a word you should be using."
"Shut up-!! You fucking son of a bitch!!"
"…."
In the beginning, he was a character who faithfully followed the 'cold-hearted handsome guy' setting, but his appearance, spitting saliva along with curses, was certainly closer to a villain.
I sighed at the sight, but I had no intention of letting him off easy or going down without a fight.
I would jump into the fiery pits of hell to protect Renia.
"Hehehe, you bastard. I definitely asked you, didn't I? If you knew about me getting all the sweet stuff at the academy."
I remember.
At that time, I feigned ignorance, pulling a 'what the hell is that'.
"You did."
"I should have realized it then. That you were a possessor just like me."
"…."
Did he attain enlightenment on the truths of the world after being resurrected?
I didn't know how he found out, but it seemed impossible to play dumb now.
Even though Renia was here, we had come too far to keep the truth hidden any longer.
Therefore,
"That's right. I'm a possessor of a novel that viewed the novel you possessed from a third-person perspective."
I revealed it without any embellishment.
I would explain everything to Renia later.
It wouldn't be easy, but I couldn't keep it covered up and ignore it just because it was difficult.
No, it was rather late.
If I had known it would come to this, I should have revealed it to Renia at least.
I felt a pang of regret, but now was not the time to be caught up in the past.
"Kekeke, you finally confess."
"But know one thing. I didn't know it would turn out like this, nor did I want it to. I was just a frail extra struggling to survive. The result of that is what created the present."
"Shut up. You arrogant bastard. You have the nerve to run your mouth after stealing and eating what was someone else's."
"Strictly speaking, I only took the hidden pieces that you wouldn't have been able to get either. You may not know this, but in the novel I possessed, 'Hidden Piece Academy,' there was something called a setting book."
"I said shut up-!! Cut the lame excuses-!!"
Excuses, how unfair.
I stopped the original Han Tae-jin's stalking to survive, I kept my distance from the heroines who strangely got entangled with me, and I tried not to take the hidden pieces that appeared in the original story, but didn't things get to this point because you got pissed off by yourself at the constantly entangling heroines and picked a fight with me at every turn?
Those words flashed through my mind like a machine gun, but I didn't say them out loud.
It would be like reading scriptures to a cow to a man consumed by primal anger and resentment.
And well, it was ridiculous to even discuss responsibility at this point.
The only solution to a relationship that has spiraled into catastrophe is the destruction of one side.
However, I had to know the reason he found out my identity. If the one who resurrected him knew my identity, the situation would get quite complicated.
"Then let me ask you one thing. How did you know I was another possessor? There was no mention of it before you died."
"You must be curious. Then wear this first."
Toss!
The man threw a pair of cuffs and shackles at me.
They were the same as Renia's, [Mana Suppression Devices].
"You'd better not even think about refusing. If you don't want to leave a scar on this succubus bitch's body."
I picked them up and looked at Renia.
Her face was already on the verge of bursting into tears.
How could a noble queen be such a crybaby?
I saw Renia shaking her head and smirked at her.
"Don't worry. Everything will be fine. You trust me, right?"
I said, spouting lines like an extra who had stacked up a ton of death flags.
Renia nodded with a worried expression.
Clank!
Click!
I put on the cuffs and shackled my feet.
The mana control activated immediately.
It was a device used to restrain prisoners in the awakened penitentiary.
Just by wearing it, it permanently blocked mana, a device that was no different from poison to an awakened being.
The material was harder than titanium, and since mana usage was blocked, it was naturally impossible to destroy or deform.
The only ways to remove it were amputation or a key.
Naturally, the key was dangling in the man's hand.
"Kehaha-! To think it would be this easy. You two must be quite close."
"Alright, now let Renia go. She has nothing to do with our bad blood."
"Well, I could let her go. But you won't be able to see it."
"What?"
"I'll let her go after you're dead. What do you think? Isn't that a good condition?"
"Ha."
I sighed at the very considerate and altruistic condition.
But I had no way to refuse, no clever plan to overcome it.
For now.
"Alright, now it's time to end this fucking bad blood. Ah, come to think of it, I didn't tell you how I found out your identity."
The man raised his mana.
Even with the suppression device on, I could feel the mana.
It was a mana that felt like a stench of a corpse, a disgusting feeling as if sticky black filth was wrapping around my whole body.
"Kekeke. I'll tell you. Finding out your identity was one of the perks I got for giving up my return to the real world. Along with an immortal body."
"...What?"
I had to doubt my ears.
Did he mean he gave up his return and became a vengeful spirit just to get revenge on me…?
No, if the return route opened upon death, shouldn't it have opened 52 times already?
'Or is this a route that opened because he was disqualified as the subject of the mission.'
It was a plausible hypothesis.
As the subject of the mission, he failed to fulfill it, so an infinite loop of repetition continued until Ercia's choice changed in this round, opening the return route.
Perhaps the original return route was the [Completion] of the mission, but since he didn't achieve it, the return route that hadn't been opened was unlocked through [Death] after he was disqualified as the subject.
But the man gave up his return, and he probably obtained information and an immortal body through some existence that transmigrated him in this world, and perhaps even me.
I didn't know why that existence made such a decision, but as I said before, such high-dimensional beings usually have a [peculiar hobby], so it was probably for the same reason.
Anyway,
"This guy is really crazy. You gave up your return just for revenge? In that monstrous body?"
"Just for revenge? I bet everything on revenge. You took everything from me, now it's your turn to have everything taken from you."
"Ha."
A hollow laugh escaped my lips in disbelief.
Even if his life in the real world was shabby, how could he think of giving up his return and becoming a vengeful spirit?
I was realizing it anew, but.
'...This thing was the protagonist?'
No.
I had always felt it, but today I was sure.
The reason he failed to save the world 52 times.
"…It was because a guy who should never have been the protagonist became one."
And that [Hidden Piece Academy] was definitely a runaway train heading for a ruinous ending.
"What?"
"Why on earth did Eternity choose you as the subject of the mission?"
Come to think of it, did the organization called Eternity create the universe?
Are we just pawns on a chessboard arranged for their entertainment, and are we just doing these foolish things according to their tastes?
Are they implanting the illusion of a return to a non-existent world into the pawns, feeding them the snack of a mission, and watching them fight each other to the death?
Such a nonsensical and far-fetched thought suddenly crossed my mind, but it was too absurd to be contained by human understanding, so I roughly dismissed it.
And
I took a step closer to the man.
"Subject of the mission? Eternity? What are you talking about? That didn't appear in the original setting."
"Unfortunately for you, you know."
"What?"
"The 23rd round, the 32nd round, the 46th round. You heard it three times."
"…What bullshit is this."
"Because those were the rounds when Ercia, the Apostle of Eternity, revealed her mission to you."
"…What?"
The man's face distorted.
He seemed to feel it instinctively.
That my words were not a lame joke.
"And the 53rd round. This is the current round."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
The man's voice began to tremble slightly.
The truth sometimes holds a harshness that should be kept covered.
And once you lift that cover, you can't cover it again without knowing the end of that harshness.
"It means that you, who were once the protagonist, failed to save this world 52 times."
"What…? D-don't talk bullshit-!! There was no such setting-!!"
An agitated voice.
His breathing became irregular, and his red pupils widened.
Agitation would soon turn into confusion, and confusion would give birth to paralysis.
I took another step closer to the man.
"Yoo Su-ah. She is the Apostle of Eternity who has gone through 53 regressions to somehow correct the 52 failures you repeated. Her real name is Ercia. She is a savior who has devoted eons of time for someone like you."
"…Sh-shut up!! Yoo Su-ah is just a cadet!! Do you think I'll be swayed by such wicked tricks…!"
"Sandbag."
"…!!"
The man flinched and froze.
[Sandbag] was his nickname from high school that appeared in the setting book.
The reason was the same as the purpose of a sandbag.
"Stop it now. I have no intention of blaming you or resenting you. Let Renia go and go back. Then we'll pretend this never happened. I'm serious."
"…."
The man's expression hardened.
An expression close to nothingness, its inner thoughts unreadable.
It seemed to contain a sense of futility and emptiness, but when the man suddenly burst out laughing, I had to tense my muscles.
Because the end of the mood swings of one who has faced a harsh truth is 'insanity'.
And the end of an insane person is usually not good.
"Hahahaha-!! What? Pretend it never happened? Do you really think what happened to us can be undone?"
"It's not impossible."
"No. We have already crossed a river of no return. Whether it's Eternity, the 53rd round, or the subject of the mission, it's all useless and meaningless now."
"…Are you really going to see this through to the end?"
"Didn't you know? We're already at the end. But after hearing your story, I've had a change of heart."
"…What?"
Instead of a sliver of hope, I prepared to charge at any moment.
Because the black haze, swirling up in an unnatural way, hinted at an ominous future.
The man chuckled.
The confusion in his red pupils disappeared, and madness filled them.
"Ah- you're really unlucky, just too unlucky. So I changed my mind. Just killing you is too merciful."
Shing!
In an instant, the man's right hand transformed into a ferocious and huge sword, and I quickly pressed the button of the small device I was holding in my right hand.
It was a [Suppresses Device] that suppresses the [Mana Suppression Device] specially made by the Queen of inventors, Dr. Han Yu-ra.
Click!
Crack!
I immediately shattered the cuffs and shackles and charged at the man.
Towards the greatsword of the man who was about to cut Renia's neck.
Yes.
This was a catastrophe with nowhere further to go, let's bring this tiresome bad blood to a complete end now.
Klang!
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